Without a Trace
by Vigatus
Summary: Sora is deid and Tai is goig to punish her murderer, but ends up getting into a bad relationship just like Sora did.
1. Default Chapter

Without a Trace  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon. Duh. Now on with the story.  
  
"I couldn't believe that she was really gone. When I was first heard I thought that people were playing an evil trick on me. I went looking for her at all our different hangouts. The school the food court at the mall, the soccer field, the park, the Digital World. The last place I looked was at her home. I'm not sure why I didn't go to her home first I guess deep down I knew that she was really gone. When I arrived at Sora's home I found her mother crying in the kitchen. Mrs. Kido was there trying to comfort her while Mrs. Izumi was making tea. When I walked into the room Mrs. Tachenochi got up and grabbed a hold of me and started crying even harder while trying to tell me that everything was going to be okay. The poor woman had just lost her daughter and she was trying to comfort me as if I was her son. That really broke my heart I just started crying. It was the only thing that I could do and there was nothing I could do to stop it. I guess someone called my parents because they eventually showed up and took me home. Mom later told me that she was proud of me for trying to help Mrs. Tachenochi, although at the time I doubt I helped much. I spent the rest of the day holding Kari as we cried together.   
  
"It wasn't until the next day that I found out that Sora had died from a drug overdose. Joe had overheard his parents talking about it. According to Joe the blood tests indicated that Sora took a massive dose of heroine which caused her to die. I attacked Joe upon hearing him say that. There was no way that I was going to believe that Sora was some sort of junky. I threw Joe to the ground and I was ready to beat the life out of the poor bastard when Kari stopped me. Interesting how Kari can control me with a simple touch or gesture, her beauty to my beast. Anyway where was I, oh yes the drugs.  
  
"Later, after I had calmed down I started thinking about what Joe had told me. Don't worry about Joe and me he forgave me even before I apologized. He excused my behavior with the emotional trauma of losing Sora in such a shocking fashion. And it was the fashion in which Sora died that I thought about. No not the clothes she was in but how she died. I mean Sora was the last person that I figured would use drugs. She always had more respect for herself than to do that. I grew very suspicious of the idea that Sora overdosed on her own and a plan started to formulate to prove that Sora didn't kill herself with drugs but that she was murdered and the weapon of choice was heroine. That was a mistake.  
  
"I went to Sora's wake with the rest of my family. I sat up front with Mrs. Tachenochi. Mr. Tachenochi was sitting away from his wife. He blamed her for Sora's death and decided to divorce his wife before his daughters body was even in the ground. God I hate that asshole. How could anyone be so self-centered and hateful? The stupid piece of shit couldn't even figure out that his daughter was murdered and not a junky like I did. I mean, holy fuck man, he's a university professor and I'm a high school student and I could figure out shit better than him.   
  
"During the wake Mrs. Tachenochi sat with her arm wrapped around me and started asking how see couldn't see this happening to her beautiful little girl. She kept telling me how she had always tried to be a good m Mrs. Tachenochi other and she couldn't understand how this happened to her little girl. This guilt was tearing Mrs. Tachenochi apart from the inside out. That's when I told her that I needed to see Sora up close. She told me that it would be okay. I went up to Sora and I looked at her lying there so peacefully. I started to look at her body. Joe had told me, once Kari calmed me down, that the doctors had fold burses and a syringe hole on her arm. Looking carefully I found the make-up that was covering the burses and the syringe hole. I felt around and discovered that the area was soft while on a junky this area would be hard from scaring. I could also see the burses from under the make-up there was a line of four little burses and a fifth one facing them. It looked like someone had grabbed Sora's arm really hard and hurt her. The other burse was on the upper inside part of Sora's arm as if someone used their knee to hold Sora down. I was now certain that Sora had been murdered.   
  
"When I reached that conclusion Sora's father came up and started screaming at me for groping his daughter's body. I didn't care what this asshole thought Sora was in a better place and she would know that I wasn't molesting her corpse, but searching for her murder. I was going to avenge Sora but first I had to deal with this prick of a father of hers. I hadn't decided whither to hit, kick, insult, or spit on the stupid fucker when Mrs. Tachenochi came up and told her soon to be ex-husband to leave me alone. She led me away to where we had been sitting. Once there she quietly asked me what I was doing. I told her my suspicions and of the evidence I found on Sora's body. She started crying with the thought that some monster would do this to her beautiful little girl. I tried to reassure her by telling her that it was not her fault and that I was going to find the person who did this and punish them. She held me close and asked if I had figured out who had done it. I told her that I wasn't really sure yet but I had a hunch. She asked me if the person was at the wake and I said no. That was the second mistake.  
  
"The funeral was a sad affair. Many of Sora's friend showed up to say nice meaningless things to Mrs. Tachenochi. I remember Mimi because she told Mrs. Tachenochi that is seemed so wrong that Sora was gone and that her death seemed so unnatural. This statement struck a cord with what I had said earlier to Mrs. Tachenochi. She hugged Mimi and thanked her. Mimi then turned to me and said how sorry she was for me. She said that she expected to be the maid of honor at Sora's and my wedding. I lost control of my grief and started crying all over poor Mimi. She took it and told me to let it all out, that she was there for me and if I needed anything that I should just ask. After a couple of minutes of crying I calmed down and Mimi asked about someone's absence, someone who should have been there. Big mistake number three.  
  
"After the funeral Mrs. Tachenochi became really depressed and stopped working in her flower shop and green house. She said she couldn't bear to do the things she and Sora use to do together. I told her that I understood and I took over running the shop until she could get back on her feet. While in the green house I was surrounded by plants that Sora had loved so much and I got an idea. Mrs. Tachenochi always got the contracts to plant the flower beds in the local parks so I decided to make the next bed myself. It would have all the favorite flowers that Sora liked and the center piece would be a rose bush of the type of roses Sora really loved. Mrs. Tachenochi agreed to allow me to do this when I explained the flower bed to her. She thought that it would be a good idea but warned to that it would be a lot of work.  
  
"I started be figuring out the arrangement would have a flowering tree in the center, I eventually settled on a Hawthorne, enclosed with roses and smaller flowers. I would need to dig a fairly deep hole for all the compost and bone meal needed for the plants. I started by gathering the all the plants, fertilizer, and tools I would need to plant the arrangement. I then went to the place in the park where the city wanted the flower bed to be placed. I prepared the hole for the plants and then I went to get the organic waste to feed the plants. While working on the hole I thought about Sora's killer and how this would be a great place to dispose of his body. I knew that it was up to me to bring Sora's murderer to justice because the cops and everyone else just wanted to ignore Sora's death.  
  
"After coming to this conclusion I went to see my old buddy Matt and get his help in capturing Sora's killer. I knew the murderer's routine like my own. I waited outside this dump of a building where he and his buddies listened to loud music and got high on drugs. I knew the murderer would have to leave earlier than his buddies to keep his cover. My plan was so simple it was stupid. I would wait outside and when the asshole came out I would hit him over the head with a shovel, throw him into Matt's van, and take off. Best part is that the plan work flawlessly. There's a new anti-drug slogan for you; 'Don't do drugs, they make you easy to kidnap.'   
  
"So, to answer your question, that's how you ended up here, tied up and half buried in a hole, Matt."  
  
While Tai was telling his story Matt had been struggling against the duct tape bound him but the struggle proved fruitless. Matt looked up at his one time friend and said, "Tai look you need help, I know you and Sora were great friends, and that your grief is making you want to lash out at the world, but buddy I'm your friend you don't want to kill me. Just think you will end up in jail…"  
  
"No I won't Matt. I have covered my tracks too well. I have a reason of being out late, I have a reason for digging a big hole, and I have a reason for carrying large sacks of shit through the park."  
  
"Yeah, but dude, people will miss me."  
  
"Know they won't. T.K. tells me that you are never around; the other digi-destined never see you, your parents don't know what to make of your behavior, oh and your stoner friends I doubt they will go to the police and ask the cops where there drug pushing buddy went off to, do you?"  
  
"My van in your driveway will make people specious."  
  
"Actually Matt someone stole your van on me yesterday and smashed it up really good. Total write off. I guess these kids had booze with them and when they crashed the bottles broke and cut the kids. There was blood everywhere. If anyone is going to be blamed for killing you it will be them. Kind of funny huh?  
  
"No it's not funny asshole. Let me out of here."  
  
"No."  
  
"Come on this isn't funny anymore Tai. Let me go and I'll make sure the cops go easy on you."  
  
"No."  
  
"Look Tai, if you let me out I'll get you a cut from my business and I'll hook you up with some really friendly girls. I'm sure they can do things that will take your mind off of Sora."  
  
"I don't want that Matt."  
  
"What the fuck do you want asshole."  
  
"I want to know why. Why did you do it Matt? Why did you kill Sora? She loved you, and you killed her. Why?"  
  
"You want to know why, you crying little faggot? Why I killed the woman I 'loved'?"  
  
"Yes," Whispers a tearful Tai.  
  
"Well asshole hears the big news flash. I killed the girl you loved, that's right Tai I knew your little secret. Your pathetic attempts to hide your emotions didn't work on me. I knew you loved her I could see it and I knew that you had beaten me at everything in life, you had a better family, my brother liked you better, you got to be the leader, you were always right, you never lost, and you always knew what to do. It made me sick but I saw the one way I could get even with you, I could ruin your chances with the girl you loved.  
  
Sora knew that I was on drugs and she was trying to save me. She asked what she could do to get me to stop and I fed her some shit about how I didn't feel loved and that if she went out with me that I would stop taking the drugs. At first she didn't want to because the stupid bitch wanted to go out with you. It great isn't it? The day you grew balls big enough to ask out Sora was the day she decided to accept my offer.  
  
"You should have seen the look on your face. You wandered around with that stupid 'Tai's sad' look on your face. Fuck man do you know how many girls wanted to ride you when you look at them with those sad eyes. You could have had any girl in school except the one you wanted. Aw poor Tai.  
  
"But all good things must come to an end. Sora told me that I wasn't living up to my side of the bargain and that she was going to leave me. I told her that I still didn't feel love and that she loved you and not me. Sora asked how to make me feel loved and I told her to sleep with me. The fucking bitch said no and that I was just using her for sex. She said that she was leaving me. I asked her where she thought she was going and the fucking bitch said, "To Tai's I only hope that he can forgive me." I lost it right then man. I grabbed the whore and told her that she was mine. I threw her down and held her with my knee while I gave her a good shot of joy. While she was getting high I took of her clothes and started fucking her good. I guess Joe never told you about that, did he? While I was giving her the fuck of her life she started twitching and her body started convulsing. I figured that the Sora was finally starting to enjoy my Ishida sausage like a good little slut. I didn't realize until I stopped fucking her that the stupid bitch ODed and had died while I was ramming her. I couldn't let the bitch's death ruin my life so I packed up her body, put it in the shower to clean it of evidence and then dumped it outside the crack-house across town. There's your fucking truth for ya, I killed Sora so you could have her. What are you going to do about it? Kill me, you ain't got the balls."  
  
After a couple of minutes of silence Tai kneels down to Matt and says, "Matt although I really want to I'm not going to kill you."  
  
"You're not?"  
  
"No I'm going to…"  
  
"You're going to bury him alive, Tai."  
  
Tai whips around to see a gun barrel pointed at his face. 


	2. Chapter 2

Wow I am evil. I leave everyone with such a great cliffhanger and then I don't finish the story. The real problem started with the fact that I originally intended to have Tai bury Matt alive in the flower garden but at the last minute I changed the story because I couldn't bring myself to turn my favorite character into a murder. I tried writing follow up chapters but they all seemed to fall flat. I also didn't think any of them made for a particularly good story. I guess that is a problem with starting a story with such a brilliant chapter you can't follow it up. I am submitting this chapter after leaving all my readers in a cliffhanger for probably the longest period of time anyone had to wait on a cliffhanger. I do not think that it is as good as the first but I believe that it's the best I can do right now. Sorry for the wait.

I also lost a lot of the feeling I had for this story. I was very angry about things when I wrote this story and I successfully channeled that negative energy into this story. I am a much happier person now and I thing that is another reason I couldn't write a powerful follow up to the story.

By the way I changed this story to the Matt/Tai section as opposed to the Tai/Sora section due to the fact that Sora's only role in the story is that of a dead body.

Now to end the excuses and to start the story. **THE DISCLAIMER**: I do not own Digimon.

"Things were not going as I expected them too. I had been assaulted by a person who I thought was my best friend. Half covered in dirt and had my dead girlfriend's murderer standing over me with a gun. Judging by the look on Tai's face he was rather surprised to see her too.

"Tai had lured me to the spot where he attacked me by telling me that he knew that Sora had been murdered and that he had a plan to reveal the murderer. I figured that Tai was smarter than anyone thought. With Tai's help I could come out of hiding and stop fearing for my life. I had no I idea that Tai thought that I was the murderer. I think I would have turned down his request for help if I had known.

"I went out to where Tai wanted to meet up with me thinking that he could protect me like he did for us in the digital world. I guess I should have realized that he didn't do much of a job protecting Sora so why I though I was safe I truly have no idea.

"I told Tai that I killed Sora and I told him other really terrible things that I did to Sora so that he would get so angry that he would finish me off quickly and I wouldn't be buried alive like I figured that he was going to do. I would have preferred a quick death than a slow one.

"I guess I also wanted to be killed too, you know? It would end the pain of losing Sora and end the guilt. I kept thinking how Sora's death was all my fault and that I should have done something. How I could have done something? I don't know. Nobody would have suspected her to be Sora's killer. Most people saw her as the most normal of people, extremely well adjusted. I don't know why I felt that I should have seen it coming, nobody did, not even Tai, and he knew her the best of all of us.

"I guess that's my fault too. Sora and I really hurt Tai. We couldn't stop feeling the way we did for each other but we pushed Tai away. We were his two best friends and we left him when he needed friends the most. I am not surprised that he thought I killed Sora. Hell, the cops interrogated me too, so it's no wonder Tai thought the same thing. The way the human mind works, I guess. Look at it this way, in Tai's mind he was avenging Sora thereby win her heart back in the afterlife. It's weird, I grant you, but it would be so easy to see how a person in Tai's position would want to see that he was the true love, not me.

"Maybe he was the truer love too. He did let Sora come to me instead of stopping her. He could have too. Sora told me that on the night she approached me about going out that she ran into Tai and that Tai sacrificed his heart for Sora. According to Sora, Tai could have stopped her if he wanted but he actually pushed her along. We tried to get Tai space so that he wouldn't feel that we were rubbing his face in it, but that plan backfired as I later found out. I guess Tai thought that our giving him space was a sign that we didn't want him around anymore. I guess you can't get much worse of a feeling than that of a broken heart topped off with rejection from your life long friends.

"When I say you can't get much worse off I mean that, because I know that you can. You can watch two people you care about die, know it is your fault, and not be able to do a thing about it. Don't try telling me it's not my fault. I know that it is, at least part of it is. Tai is to blame because he jumped to the wrong conclusion and he didn't keep his house in order. Sora and I are to blame for making Tai feel alienated, and I am also to blame for hiding from everyone after Sora's murder. My actions fueled Tai's suspicions. If I had any courage I could have at least saved Tai, this mush I know for certain.

"I guess I want to hate Tai because he put me in the situation in the first place but I can't. I was the one who started the game, Tai just played his part and I played mine. I guess I pity Tai. He was in so much pain and in the end it only got worse. Yeah I pity him, and I love him. Even though he attacked me and buried me in the ground, he wasn't trying to kill me; he just wanted to scare a confession out of me. He set up a video camera to catch it on tape and even wrote a letter of intent so the world would know what he was thinking in case anything went wrong. That letter was his fatal mistake.

"When I think about it. I realize that no matter how bad I felt at that moment Tai had it worse. Here he was learning that I didn't kill Sora, he wasn't a hero. I can still remember the look of shock and horror on his face when he saw the face behind the gun, and things just got worse for the poor bastard as the night went on. Not only did he find out that I didn't kill the girl he loved, but that his little sister did.

"Yeah, that's right; Kari was the one who killed Sora. I guess Tai left the letter of intent so someone could find it and Kari read it and decided to intervene in Tai's plans. Tai only wanted a confession so that the cops could put me in jail. Kari wanted to kill me so that there would be no one left knowing the truth except her and her brother and maybe not even Tai.

"I remember the shock and confusion in Tai's voice when he finally recognized the face on the other side of the gun. He looked at her and wanted to know why she was here. She told him how she found the letter and came to make sure that things were done right. He asked her what she was talking about, and then she told him that I was to die to make sure that her plan worked out perfectly. She then talked on about how that Sora and I would be gone the two of then could live happily ever after.

"That phrase really confused the fuck out of Tai. He said that I was going to the cops and what did she mean by happily ever after. Kari said that now that she got Sora out of the way and with me dead they could move on and never have to worry about getting caught because I would be the only one who knew the truth.

"This was where Tai sealed his fate, he asked Kari what she meant by getting Sora out of the way. Kari looked at her brother and laughed. She told him that she was the one that killed Sora and that I had seen the whole thing. Kari was wrong I never saw her kill Sora but when I arrived on the scene of Sora's death I did see someone run away but I was too concerned with Sora to worry about who they were. I didn't bother to try to explain that to Kari. I didn't think that it would have made a whole lot of difference.

"Now I knew who Sora's murderer was, and so did Tai. We were both rather surprised. The look he gave me when he first heard the news told me that he didn't believe it. He accused me of brainwashing his little sister. I guess he was still in denial at that point, a point Kari was sure to correct.

"Kari looked at Tai and told him that I had nothing to do with her. That this was all done for him. She said that she couldn't find me but that he had lured me out of hiding and now she could finish the job by killing me. Tai asked her why she would do such a thing and Kari replies by telling Tai that she loved him."

"So Kari did this because you and Sora hurt Tai?"

"Fuck T.K. I wish it was that simple. If it was we wouldn't be in the situation that we are now. If that was the case Tai could have stopped Kari and things would have ended there, but no it was much more messed up. Kari told Tai that she loved him the way he wanted Sora to love him. She confessed that she wanted him in a sexual manner that she would sneak into the bathroom while he showered and watch. She told him that she fantasized about having sex with him, about how they could run away and have a family together, either in the digital world or in some other city. She even told how they wouldn't have to get her name changed on her ID and that people would just think they were a married couple. She had it all planned out. All she had to do was remove the people who had caused him so much pain and when he realized what she had done for him he would return her love. She then told Tai that she would never hurt him like Sora did and then she tried to kiss him.

"I really wish something different had happened then. I wish that she decided to try to kill me first or that Tai had thought to use that moment to grab the gun from Kari. But instead Tai, only thinking that this was his little sister trying to slip him the tongue pushed Kari away from him. Kari looked at him in shock, I guess she thought that Tai was as messed up as she was but I guess he wasn't after all. At this point I lost my cool. Tai should have grabbed the gun and he hesitated, squaring off against your younger sibling can do that to you. You think that would be the person you know best, but I guess you never can tell.

"Yeah back to me loosing my cool. That was a real idiot move on my part. I bitch out Tai for not grabbing the gun from Kari and now Kari suddenly remembers me being there in the hole. She points the gun at me from across the hole and said, 'Don't talk to my brother like that you son of a bitch.' Then she pulled the trigger.

"As soon as I realized the mistake I made I squinted my eyes and hoped that my face wouldn't be too fucked up by the bullet when my mother had to identify my body. Strange last thought huh? But then I realized that even though I heard the gun shot I was still alive. Then I hear Kari screaming Tai's name and I open my eyes to see Tai falling down to the side of the hole clenching his stomach. Tai had jumped in front of me at the last moment and took the bullet for me. He sat down against the side of the hole and looked me in the eye and said that he was sorry. I knew that he was too. I accepted his apology, and the thing was I was sorry too. I told him that but I don't know if he heard or not. It is really hard to hold a grudge against a dying man.

"Kari ran over to Tai screaming that she was sorry and that he was going to be okay. She kept yelling that she loved him and how sorry she was, and to please forgive her. She kept yelling his name but he didn't reply he was gone. She looked at me and asked why Tai wouldn't talk to her. I decided that since I wasn't going to live anyway I might as well be honest and told her that she had killed her brother. She looked at me as her brain struggled to comprehend the truth. Then she looked back to her brother kissed him and said, 'I'm coming Tai.' Then she raised the gun to her head and joined her brother.

"That's why I didn't want to tell you what happened that night T.K. The story is going to mess you up as much as it did me."

"You're lying; Kari loved me, not Tai. You are just making up some sick story."

"No T.K. I'm not", said Matt as he snuffed out the cigarette butt on the floor. "What I told you was the truth, believe it or not I really don't care. I guess that Kari was using you to cover up the feelings that she had for Tai, knowing tat they were wrong and everything. I don't know maybe she tried to love you instead of Tai. Maybe she tried to be normal but just couldn't pull the act off."

"Tell me the truth!" yelled T.K. as he cocked the hammer on the gun he was holding to Matt's head. "I won't listen to any more of your lies!"

Matt looked up at his brother from where he was sitting in the kitchen chair and quietly said, "T.K. my life is so fucked up right now I really don't care if you pull that trigger or not, but before you do think about what I learned that night. You only hurt the ones you love."

T.K. thought about what his brother said made his decision.

The End


End file.
